Erdogan to Betray Gaza for Israeli Gas

Israeli and world media have featured screaming headlines over the past few days that Turkey and Israel are about to resume diplomatic relations broken off after Israeli naval commandos murdered 10 Turkish citizens on the Mavi Marmara in 2010 (including one U.S. citizen). The freeze between the two countries cut off Israeli trade and military coöperation with one of the largest and most influential Muslim nations in the region. Prior to the massacre, Turkey and Israel’s militaries conducted joint military exercises, intelligence agencies freely shared information, and bilateral trade flourished.

Since 2010, Turkey has had three key demands in order to resume ties: financial compensation to the victims, an Israeli apology, and lifting Israel’s siege of Gaza. As outlined in the press, Turkey will have two of those three conditions met. Israel will pay $20-million to the families of the victims. It has already apologized. But Israel adamantly refused to lift the siege. Instead of holding fast until his demands were met, Erdogan caved.

Israel has only agreed to permit Turkey and Germany to build a new hospital in Gaza and to build a new sewage treatment and power plant there. Turkey will also be permitted to aid in reconstruction of the 20,000 homes destroyed in the 2014. But it will be forced to unload all shipments at the Israeli port of Ashdod. This is ironic because the entire purpose of the Mavi Marmara trip was to break the Israeli blockade. After Israel hijacked the ship and kidnapped the passengers it forced them to Ashdod, where Israeli authorities promptly stole millions of dollars worth of electronic equipment and personal belongings of the victims. Meaning that Turkey has acceded to the very conditions which the Mavi Marmara sought to end.

A further dark irony of the Turkey-Israel agreement is that as soon as the next war between Israel and Gaza breaks out, these Turkish projects will be among the first Israel will destroy. Just as it did during Operation Protective Edge when it destroyed every government building, the Islamic University and infrastructure like power and sewage plants. In an earlier conflict it destroyed a nascent project to rebuild the Gaza seaport funded by the Dutch and French.

Oil and gas fields in eastern Mediterranean

So what exactly has Turkey won and Gaza lost? Most importantly for Turkey, Israel plans to extract massive amounts of oil and gas off its seacoast from the Mediterranean. A number of nations and militant groups dispute Israel’s plans. Both Gaza and Lebanon claim portions of these fields are in their territory. Hezbollah, no doubt, looks forward to attempting to sabotage any resource production off the Lebanese coast.

Israel is hard at work attempting to ensure the security of these new oil platforms. When Turkey was out of the picture, Israel negotiated with Cyprus and Greece to ship its product to Europe. But Turkey, with its powerful military forces, was a wildcard. Now, with Turkey back on the team, Israel not only has one less enemy to worry about, it could conceivably receive assistance from the Turkish military in protecting the facilities.

What’s in it for Turkey? A significant portion of the likely $2-billion cost of the project along with a percentage of the tens of billion in revenue generated by transshipment through Turkish territory. You can easily see when faced with a choice between loyalty to Gaza and a financial bonanza, which outcome Erdogan preferred.

Israel’s new Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen, was reported to have made a secret visit to Turkey in recent days. Though Israeli media says he went to ask Turkey to shut down Hamas activities inside the country, Turkish media said he came to discuss oil. Haaretz reports that Turkey agreed to shut down all military activities of Hamas on its soil (I’d only heard Israel claim once during this period that a Hamas operative planned a terror attack from Turkey). Hamas political activity will continue there. Though both oil and Hamas may’ve been subjects on the table, my guess is that Cohen came primarily with barrels of oil and dollar signs flickering in his eyes.

Though this subject hasn’t been mentioned in the media, Israel and Turkey also have common interests in Syria, where the Muslim nation supports Sunni rebels (some say ISIS itself) fighting the Assad regime on the northern front; and Israel supports al-Nura rebels on the southern front. What form such cooperation may take isn’t clear. But you can be sure that both will be exploring their options.

Israeli media also report another visitor to Turkey’s Ottoman-style presidential palace: Hamas chief, Khaled Meshal. This visit can’t be a happy one for the Hamas leader. He’ll essentially be told by Erdogan that Turkey’s commitment to Gaza has evaporated. Hamas will have little or nothing to show for it. And all Erdogan’s bluster over the past few years about how he remained steadfast for Gaza in the face of Israeli barbarity–all that will be for naught.

Considering Kissinger used to brag about chasing away Arab diplomats with UN 242 the fact that 2 of the 3 concessions were won from Israel is a hopeful sign.

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June 25, 2016 11:43 PM

lepxii

It is natural gas, not oil. There are no significant oils finds – at least not yet. But big natural gas finds.

It isn’t certain a pipe will be laid to Turkey. Lots of problems even with this normalization. One major problem is that the pipe will have to run in Lebanese or Syrian waters or alternatively via partitioned Cyprus (a whole can of worms, particularly since Cyprus is an EU member).

My bet is that Turkey is more interested in arm deals and maintenance – more that the gas.

@ lepxii: About Abbas, what did you expect? He’s an idiot. If as many Palestinian officials read my blog as Israeli officials do, he could’ve avoided this stupidity.

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June 26, 2016 3:03 AM

Abby

“…much of the ISIS oil pumped in Iraq ends up purchased by Israel”

Rubbbish. Your link say,
“Kurdish and Turkish smugglers are transporting oil from ISIS controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and selling it to Israel, according to several reports in the Arab and Russian media.”

@ Abby: That’s Globes, Israel’s leading business publication that you’re calling “rubbish.” I’d say given a choice between Globes & you, I’ll take Globes any day of the week. And as for which of these sources is “rubbish,” I think that’d be you.

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June 26, 2016 3:05 AM

Dude

Globes does not publish it as a confirmed fact but as a report by “al-Araby al-Jadeed.” Huge difference!!

Would you take the word of “al-Araby al-Jadeed” over something else any day of the week?

To see just how anti-Israeli is the paper, it got a response from ISIS about this supposedly sales “The Islamic State group has told al-Araby that it did not intentionally sell oil to Israel, blaming agents along the route to international markets.”

Richard, if you saw through the well-poisoning hoax, why can’t you see through this one?

@ Eran: Here’s how a quality media publication works: they research their story and include credible media sources in their own report. A good media outlet doesn’t include fake or ridiculous sources because that would cause it to lose credibility. THat means that Globes, being a quality media outlet, didn’t quote a source it didn’t trust. So I trust Globes & I trust the story. So if you actually have real evidence to disprove the claim in the Globes report, offer it. If you don’t, take a hike.

The fact that Al Araby quotes Islamist sources acknowledging it did sell oil to Israel proves Globes point & my point. It doesn’t as you claim, support your own.

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June 27, 2016 12:55 AM

Eran

You really have no idea? Do you?

It will be useless to try and break it down for you. Obviously, you don’t let facts confuse you. For example, you sentence “Islamist sources acknowledging it did sell oil to Israel” – is nothing less than a stupid lie. The ‘source’ blamed it on “agents along the route to international markets”. And at the end of article “”To be fair, the [IS] organisation sells oil from caliphate territories but does not aim to sell it to Israel or any other country,” he said. “It produces and sells it via mediators, then companies, who decide whom to sell it to.”

@ Eran: Read the comment rules carefully before publishing another comment. Do NOT repeat yourself in multiple comments. Also, keep your comments to no more than three per 24 hour period. And if you continue insulting me you’ll end up in the dustbin of commenter history here.

If ISIS sells oil and it ends up in Israel I don’t care how it got there. It means that Israel bought ISIS produced oil. There are easy ways to oversee the purchase of oil. Israel could detect the origins of the oil it buys if it wished. But it doesn’t wish. Hypocrisy. And you’re defending hypocrisy.

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June 28, 2016 1:59 AM

Eran

You mean if we have ping-pong conversation, I should not answer you if it is more than 3 times a day? Or if i’m involved in another thread? Seems like a way to shoot up readers you dislike.

All the report has is he said/she said with no concrete evidence. Globes doesn’t publishes as a fact but as a report published somewhere. It isn’t a courtesy of crediting al-Araby al-Jadeed with breaking the story but rather saying, they have said that. Period!

Funny how you want evidence to discredit the story when you have nothing what-so-ever to support it. OLAM HAFUCH

b. Israel is not the poorest OECD country. It has the highest level of poverty which is something altogether different. Poverty has no objective definition. It is arbitrarily defined as earning half the average national income not including indirect government support. Comparing poverty in Mexico and Israel is just plain wrong.

c. Half of poor families are either Haredi or arab-muslim with low work participation of men or woman or both. The reasons are more cultural/religious, not the result of discrimination. When you raise a large family and have limited working skills it obviously will be more difficult for you to reach the median income. This is especially true of the Bedouin population in which polygamy is common and girls are encouraged not to acquire higher education.

d. Never the less there is plenty of good in Israeli economy compared to OECD: low unemployment (5.9% vs. 7.3) especially among young (10% vs. 15); high health level (average life span of 82.1 vs. 80.5; higher than average satisfaction level; relatively lower tax burden; less public debt.

@ eli: Claiming “poverty has no objective definition” is a ridiculous claim. When you use an agreed standard to measure poverty throughout your report and apply it to all countries included in the survey, that’s by definition objective and not arbitrary. And I do enjoy your squirming to try to say that Israel having the highest level of poverty among OECD countries is somehow less alarming than being the poorest country in OECD.

If I hear one more pro-Israel apologist like you try to blame the Israeli poor for their own poverty I will scream. Repeat after me: if there are massive numbers of poor in a country the rulers of the country are responsible. The poor are victims. They don’t cause their own poverty. So if Haredim and Palestinians are poor, it is the fault of Israeli society for not offering them to tools to escape poverty. And yes, institutional racism and discrimination is largely at fault for this, especially for Palestinians. If Israel does not acculturate Haredim and permits them to live in their own religious/educational ghettos that’s Israel’s fault. There are ways to draw religious minorities into the body politic. Israel refuses to do anything to address this problem. It permits Haredi schools to let students graduating knowing barely more than 2+2. That’s shameful.

The U.S. had a War on Poverty in the 1960s. Israel has a war on the poor run by Milton Friedman’s favorite Israeli, Bibi Netanyahu. You withdrew the social safety net and Israelis became poor. That’s what happened. Not that the poor chose to be poor. I find this statement deeply offensive. So don’t make it again.

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June 27, 2016 1:01 AM

Dani

I find it amusing that as a US citizen you now also critisize Israel’s inequality. I suggest you to take a nice walk around, say, downtown SF. Alternatively, you can stay indoors and simply look at the US and Israel Gini indexes.

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July 1, 2016 6:59 AM

bryan

In your defence of Israeli levels of poverty and inequality, you could also have pointed out that Israel has a powerful and very influential “Occupy” movement, which is something that the likes of Mexico entirely lack.

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July 1, 2016 3:50 AM

pea

Aren’t between 12.5% to 20% of the profits generated by these gas fields taxable by the Israeli government? Any way you look at it, it’s a significant windfall for the average Israeli. Also, a significant percentage (I read 53%) is reserved for domestic consumption meaning energy prices are going down. Already several coal burning electric plants are being converted to run on soon to be abundant and cheap natural gas – meaning the price of electricity is also going to drop. Sure, some consultants and business interests are going to do quite well, but one can’t say that none of the benefits will make there way to the average Israeli. What am I missing here?

@ pea: Where will these new tax revenues go? To end poverty? To integrate Palestinian citizens into Israeli society? No. They’ll go into the maw of the military machine. Or fund an MFA program to defeat delegitimization.

As for where prices will go, don’t be so sure. Scores of countries have eagerly anticipated the wealth that would pour on their citizens and the free gas they would enjoy only to be supremely disappointed. In fact, natural resource “finds” like this often exacerbate social inequities because the wealthy ensure that they become wealthier. Their greed isn’t clever enough to understand that if they deny any benefit to the poor, they will eventually rise up against them. Israeli oligarchs are no different.

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June 27, 2016 2:45 AM

pea

What scores of countries? Also the tax revenues are going to be massive – there’s no way to limit their use to just anti-delegitimization programs or military expenditures, especially in an era where the military is in belt tightening mode and thousands of career officers are being let go. There is going to be a big financial windfall. The government knows it, the people know it, and the government knows that the people know it. I pity the cabinet that decides to squander this money to their own personal benefit. Sure, they do that now, but being so blatant about it would be political suicide. Already public pressure has forced the government to renegotiate the pre-existing and pre-approved deals with the energy companies. The Israeli people are demanding their share of the windfall and there is no indication, at least none that I have observed living in Israel, that the pols and the chazers are going to be able to grab the lion’s share of the tax revenues for themselves.

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June 30, 2016 3:20 AM

Eran

The Turks might hope to get part in the construction of future seaport/airport island nonsense suggested by Israel. That must worth billions in contracts.

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June 26, 2016 10:56 AM

Mostafa

Utterly depressing!

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June 26, 2016 1:05 PM

Arie Brand

So in return for dropping the demand to lift the siege of Gaza Turkey is allowed to assist in building a hospital and in the construction of a sewerage treatment plant. Big deal. More targets for the Israeli artillery and Air Force to destroy at the next onslaught. Was there ever such a colonial project in modern times? Not only that Israel has done nothing to promote the welfare of the occupied people it formally has responsibility for, it is actually sabotaging this where it can. Not only that it refuses to invest in projects that might serve the occupied people, it destroys the projects funded by others. This has led to a form of international embarrassment. The “Euro-Mediterranean Human rights Monitor” remarks in its most recent report on the matter: “Since 2012, information on damage to EU-funded projects has been inaccessible to both the media and human rights institutions, much less the general taxpaying public. Why? “It might represent an embarrassment to the EU for not protecting its funded facilities properly,” says Cécile Choquet, Researcher at the Euro-Med Monitor. Thus, most relevant data are classified.” This organization has been forced to take roundabout ways to compile its report “Squandered Aid – Israel’s repetitive destruction of EU-funded projects in Palestine “ The fact that Israel gets away with this time and again makes nonsense of its frequent complaint that it is the target of international discrimination. The boot is on the other foot. No other country enjoys so much international protection in warding off the consequences of its evil deeds. We all know that in its last assault on Gaza Israel wilfully destroyed targets without military value, all in an attempt to make life impossible for the Gazans. I can only concur with Michael Neuman’s judgment where he says about Israeli policy that it “represents: a careful, deliberate rejection of peace, and a declaration of the fixed intention to dispossess the Palestinians until they have nothing left” and that it is among other things “ a vengeful, relentless, sadistically gradual expression of hatred for the defeated Arab enemy” and “an elaborate plan to seek out those who had fled the misery of previous confrontations, to make certain that their suffering would continue.” This humans rights monitor summarizes the havoc wrought in Gaza as follows: “The attack destroyed important infrastructure, including educational and health facilities, water and sanitation installations, and even entire neighborhoods, such as Shejaya and Khuza. EU-funded facilities that were damaged included UNRWA schools, wells, water networks, water reservoirs, hospitals and streets. Detailed Needs Assessment (DNA) and Recovery Framework for Gaza Reconstruction, made by Ministerial Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza on operation protective edge, documented a physical damage of $1.4 billion to structures, assets and contents of buildings and $1.7 billion in economic losses, which comprise lost revenue and unexpected operational costs due to the impact of the war.” It also notes that wilful Israeli destruction in Area C of occupied territory of the West Bank (directly administered by Israel) has increased in recent times: “2016: More demolitions than ever During the first three months of 2016, the number of demolitions was unprecedented. Israel has destroyed more houses and other types of infrastructure built with European assistance in the West Bank than during all of 2015. More than 120 buildings financed by EU donors have been demolished. Southern Hebron On 2 February, Israeli forces demolished more than 20 Palestinian buildings, including 10 EU-funded structures in Area C of the West Bank. The bulldozers arrived early that day in the villages of Jinba and Halawa, leaving some 110 people,… Read more »

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June 26, 2016 11:40 PM

Arie Brand

Though we hopped on unexpectedly quickly to another subject I would like to dwell a bit more on the topic of that important Turkish-Israeli deal.

According to the English language Turkish paper Hurriyet Daily News the Israel apology for the attack on the Mavi Marmara flotilla is far from wholehearted:

“In March 2013, through U.S. President Barack Obama’s mediation, Netanyahu called the then-prime minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and apologized for Israeli “operational mistakes” that resulted in the loss of Turkish lives aboard the ship leading the 2010 flotilla. However, Israel refuses to apologize for the act of stopping the ship, which it regards as a legitimate act of self-defense.”

Also, has Turkey really given up on the demand that the blockade of Gaza should be lifted? According to the paper the Turkish minister of foreign affairs, Meviüt Cavusoglu, came with an enigmatic reaction:

“Saying that Turkey has given up one of its two remaining conditions, which is lifting the embargo and blockade on Gaza, would mean humiliating the people’s intelligence. If Turkey had given up these [conditions], then relations would have been normalized by now,” said Çavuşoğlu.”

The energy aspect of the deal is also played down:

“An eventual deal would pave the way for multibillion-dollar natural gas contracts as Israel seeks to export fuel from its largest field and Turkey looks to reduce its reliance on Russian gas. However, the deal is not expected to outline such a particularity because the development of natural gas reserves require legal arrangements to be adopted by the Knesset – something that is likely to take three or four years.”

The whole story here is about national interests trumping ideology. Israel and Turkey need each other, end of story. There’s no love affair. I know that for many of you ideology is all about self-righteous moral judgements, but the system of international relations has never worked that way and never will. Countries than repeatedly let ideology supercede interests fail. Get over it!
BTW, the supposed opponents of the deal in the Israeli Cabinet (Lieberman+Bennett) only allow themselves to oppose it because they know the decision does not hinge on them, and they prefer to pander to local populist political interests to gain votes.
Same with Herzog from Labor– the political motivation of his cynical statements opposing the deal is so transparent its a joke, and even his own party contradicts him.

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June 28, 2016 10:10 PM

Arie Brand

@Yehuda

Except that it cannot by any stretch of the imagination deemed to be in either Turkey’s or Israel’s national interest for these Turkish projects in Gaza to be destroyed as Israel has destroyed so many others.

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June 29, 2016 9:34 AM

Yehuda

@Arie
I agree.
So let’s hope that Hamas or other smaller extremist groups do not use Gaza as a staging platform for attacking Israel and provoke an attack on Gaza which endangers these projects.
Perhaps Turkey can act as a moderating force on Hamas.

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June 30, 2016 1:31 AM

Arie Brand

@Yehuda

What Hamas does or doesn’t do is pretty irrelevant as far as the Israeli political establishment’s need for solidarity cementing aggression is concerned.

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